The Vans Warped Tour was the first festival for many of us back in the day. As young'ns, it's likely we didn't necessarily think about all that went into figuring out the bands to book and play the whole shebang. Part of that process, at least locally, seems to be through a series "battle of the bands" style competitions specifically for landing a spot on the fest. Quite a few Portland bands have been furiously playing against one another for said spot, and djent/prog metal act Vow of Volition are one of the acts that made it to the finals.

Warped Tour was always the type of festival that included much in the realm of pop punk, punk punk, emo and metal, so Vow of Volition's advancement to the final round is no surprise. Their incredibly technical, at times jazzy metal stands out in Portland's pretty linear popular music scene, and is much worthy of the attention its getting.

So far, Vow of Volition have shared only one single off their newest, titled Anthelion. "Promise" is somewhat short in length, clocking in at just under two minutes, but it in no way falls short when compared to any of their other epically technical death metal jams. We'll be hearing the rest of the album tomorrow during the show and if "Promise" is any indication of the rest of Anthelion, then it promises to be another solidly heavy release.

Increate's full length debut, Void, dropped a few days ago and shares six new tracks showcasing their eight string instrumental assault. The quartet credit ganja, discovering the ideal balance between calculated and improvised solos, and reworking the songs after moving from including vocals to being fully instrumental as part of the process that makes Void so great.

The Deli Magazine was born in NYC's Attorney Street in 2004, in the shape of a print issue with a then unknown band on its cover, called Grizzly Bear. Ths NYC blog came in 2005, then the SF one in 2006, and then 9 more in the following years. The Deli is focused on the coverage of emerging bands and solo artists with a 100% local focus - no exceptions!